Shasta Glow '25

We've taken advantage of the proximity of Mt. Shasta (~4 hours from our house) over the past couple of winter seasons. Iver has become quite the good skiier in the last two years and last year, Niall took one day of lessons before deciding it was "not his thing." We tried again this year, with him (at first reluctantly) attending two days of ski school at the end of the Presidents' Week break (driving ~7 hours from Yosemite), and we all had another great skiing experience! After a Wednesday storm (our driving day), we had fresh powder on Thursday and two days of spectacular sunny and low-wind, perfect skiing weather!

With his rental, but not too excited about (re-) starting ski school.

Magic Carpet on the bunny hill

They gave the ski students bibs so they wouldn't get lost on the slopes!

One of the spectating siblings of a ski student had this really cool snowman-making mold and made a snow family!

 While Niall was in school (10a-12p and 1-3p), we hit the slopes. Iver was a bit apprehensive after a ~ year break, but, like riding a bike, his motor memory as right back, along with his confidence. 

He was soon taking off and speeding down, "shredding" the slopes ahead of us old folks!

Kelvin (who snowboards) and I stuck to the intermediate "blue" slopes mostly on Douglas and Coyote lifts. We only fell a couple of times (and didn't get injured), which is the mark of a successful day!

I realize that all my ski pictures for at least 15 years have been in this same trusty Columbia jacket, which you can easily spot on the slopes!

We met up with Brian, Hudson, and Gavin on the slopes (they are generally stronger skiiers than we are, though! Iver went on a few black diamonds with them!)

lunch break at the lodge!

After Niall's second day of ski school (during which he progressed to level 3 and did a practice run on a green slope off Marmot lift), he was ready to go with me. The leash from last year was not needed and Niall did amazing "pizza-ing" side to side down Fresh Air run, joined by big brother and alongside me (I can't seem to get them up here, but I have a few nice short video clips). I am so proud of him for sticking through it to get the basics down! Now he just needs practice. (He's already asking about going on the advanced lifts!).

After skiing, we relaxed at a super nice Airbnb "The vortex" in Mt. Shasta, which had tons of entertainment, including board games and this Virtual Reality headset, a novelty which thrilled our kids. 

We enjoyed spectacular Shasta views from our hot tub! 

Friends (Valerie, Greg, and their similarly aged girls Stella and Carter) joined us for dinner and playtime on our last night.  "Skyjo" game was a hit...

... as was movie time as the adults reconnected.

I'm not sure when our next ski trip will be (Iver and Kelvin have a season pass and may make another weekend trip this year to Shasta), but we're so glad that Niall has caught on and we can make it a family adventure for years to come! 

Mt. Shasta Ski Week

 

We had a fun "ski week" 2024!  The kids were off school for a week (plus the following Monday!) for Presidents' Week and we had decided to take a ski trip, returning to Mt. Shasta, where Iver learned to ski last year (taught by Brian) and, loving it, got a season pass.  (Kelly thankfully was able to watch our senior doggie, Pepper). While I had to work on call during the long weekend, Brian and his kids headed there on Sunday, and Iver asked if he could tag along ahead rather than attending "school camp" for the couple of weekdays we had to stay in town (which was okay by us, and Brian, although it was a bit strange to have a house without him-- parenting one child is way less work than parenting two! Apparently, Iver was very well behaved). 

This crew got some pretty wintry weather, which made skiing tough, but they were real troopers! 

Kelvin, Niall and I left home Wednesday after work and picked up Iver, then stayed at a nice family-friendly AirBnB rental near the Mt. Shasta Elementary School.

Lovely rainbow on the 299

We got to the mountain early and on Thursday and got a few falling snowflakes as we stood in line at the Learning Center to get Niall registered for Ski School, but otherwise had lovely weather and got to ski on fresh powder! I don't think I'd skied at Mt. Shasta since 2012 or so, but it's a nice small mountain for learners (and I wore the same ski jacket:)).

(Niall was very interested in tasting snow!)

I think Ski School was hard (and tiring) for Niall, as it was his first time on skis, but he was a trooper!

Iver, now an apparent pro, led the way up the lifts and down the slopes! On our first day, we stayed a lot on the easier slopes off the Marmot Lift, but the next day skied almost exclusively on Douglas (a bit higher up). We saw many people we knew from Humboldt, including schoolmates, and Iver's former second grade teacher!  We loved the sunny weather! 

These kids had me beat down the mountain every time but (usually) patiently waited for me at the bottom! (One time, I fell, lost one of my skis, and had a hard time getting it back on, so I had to hike down the mountain a bit. They left me that time).

A rare(ish) break!

We ate a good family dinner at the original Black Bear Diner nearby our rental. Everyone was starving and exhausted after the long days of exertion and went to bed very early!  

On Friday, Brian (a very expert skiier!) was adventurous and took Niall up Douglas (!) for his first lift ride and run!

("Brian can ski, hold me on the leash, AND take a video!" exclaimed Niall!).

I put the harness on Niall and did a few runs on the Bunny Hill, although it was hard for me (still a very intermediate skiier) to get the hang of skiing and trying not to get tangled up in someone  (unfortunately, our video isn't loading here)! We also took the lift and took the Easy Street slope all the way down (only with a few spills that Niall blamed me for!).  

I had only purchased a two-of-three day day pass, and I think Niall was done for the season, so he and I hung out playing in the snow rather than skiing on Saturday.  My legs (mainly quads) were also tired after two days of skiing!  Niall wanted to dig a "snow cave" like he saw on the Bear Grylls adventure show.

(snow hole)

We met up with friend Dylan, who did a bit of skiing but then played with us for the rest of the day.

Snowball fight! We'd left the shovel parked in the snow when we took a potty break... and then it got stolen! (However, I ran into a lady in the bathroom who I remembered from nearby where we were playing, and it turns out that her son took the shovel, not knowing it was not free for the taking, so we were able to get it back! The family is actually from Arcata, which I'm surprised she volunteered to me because Niall definitely wanted to put the whole family in jail for theft!). 

These kids played in the snow for hours (without fighting, which tends to be the case with my boys, except when Niall tried to get Dylan to climb a tree to retrieve his snow mittens). I had to put on my show shoes so I didn't sink--NorCal has had a lot of rain this winter, and the snow was deep!  I enjoyed the peaceful time in the mountains, my happy place! 

They made this is a small sledding hill

(the luge)

Iver skied almost the entire last day, even without lunch, from first chair to last lift-- and that was his sixth consecutive day skiing up there! He said he thought he went down the mountain upwards of 30 times on our last day, even managing a black diamond with Lacinda (which I'm not brave enough to do!). I'm really impressed with his skiing (, stamina, and enthusiasm!) in his second season. While skiing is not an inexpensive sport and (for us adults) seems to carry some moderate risk of serious injury, kids are fearless and clueless -- and I'm sure Iver will be asking for another season pass for next year!